It’s unfair, it’s wrong, it’s “gerrymandering” when Republicans do it.
But it’s “democracy” when the perpetrators are Democrats.
That odd bit of hypocrisy is courtesy Barack Obama, who this week joined in an orchestrated campaign by Democrats to condemn a redistricting proposal in Texas.
It would, if fact, give GOP members a higher probability of winning some seats, analysts have said.
Obama wrote, “We can’t lose focus on what matters – right now, Republicans in Texas are trying to gerrymander district lines to unfairly win five seats in next year’s midterm elections. This is a power grab that undermines our democracy.”
We can’t lose focus on what matters – right now, Republicans in Texas are trying to gerrymander district lines to unfairly win five seats in next year’s midterm elections. This is a power grab that undermines our democracy. https://t.co/lBGo5aNbyp
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 5, 2025
However, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pointed out the two different definitions of redistricting, or gerrymandering, Democrats, including Obama, trot out.
Dems only call it “gerrymandering” when it’s in a Republican state
When it happens in Illinois, they call it “democracy” https://t.co/erlaF433p7 pic.twitter.com/4ETi84C1Cs
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) August 6, 2025
Democrats “only call it ‘gerrymandering’ when it’s in a Republican state,” he explained. “When it happens in Illinois, they call it ‘democracy.’”
A report on the politicking by Obama, in Twitchy, cited a 2012 article in the New Yorker in which Obama confessed that his own national political career “was launched with the assistance of gerrymandering that Barack had a personal hand in helping with.”
The report confirmed, “In 1996, during his first run for office, in the Illinois State Senate, Obama defeated his former political mentor Alice Palmer by successfully challenging her nominating petitions and forcing her off the ballot, effectively ending her career. A few years later, Illinois Democrats, after toiling in the minority in the Senate, gerrymandered the state to produce a Democratic majority. While drafting the new political map, Obama helped redraw his own district northward to include some of Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, making the district a powerful financial and political base that he used to win his U.S. Senate seat, a few years later.”